I have tried several natural treatments, but none of them worked. Now I use Comfortis, which is a pill. I haven't seen a tick or flea since starting it. My dogs would always get violently ill when used a topical treatment.

I have tried several natural treatments, but none of them worked. Now I use Comfortis, which is a pill. I haven't seen a tick or flea since starting it. My dogs would always get violently ill when used a topical treatment.

Thank you! My dog has some kind of bumpy rash on his back that hasn't gotten better with antibiotics or steroids, and I think it's the Frontline.

Diatomaceous Earth. It's like borax but without any toxicity. I used it to de-flea BF's home years ago because the previous tenants had left an infestation. Within a couple of weeks, after the eggs and larvae hatched out, everything calmed down. Buy Food Grade and you can use it around the house on the carpet and floors, on the pet, in the pet ( food) on the pet's bedding, In the garden, you can use it to polish your teeth ( REad the drinking dirt threads, I use it as part of a homemade toothpaste and my teeth feel very clean.) Use it against house hold pests like roaches or pantry moths or fruit flies ( I have a worm bin, got fruit flies, I dusted it, flies gone in a few days) It's great stuff. It's safe stuff. Use a dust mask when applying ( I don't) to avoid inhalation. I used it in BF's house and he has asthma, and it didn't trigger an attack, a bit of discomfort from drying effect of the dust while it settled for a couple of days, but he didn't die or complain to I take that as a go.

Have you tried Revolution for the pet? It's a different Chemical from the Frontline It's Vet Prescribed so you have to go for a visit or get your Vet's approval to buy it. It's expensive but worth it, cause it affects not only fleas, but internal parasites and I've heard mosquitoes but I'm not sure about the last.

DE doesn't contain allergens. It's a One ingredient product Now It is dusty because it is a powder, but like I said, it didn't bother my asthmatic BF who is sensitive to everything. It may cause you to sneeze but it would be most likely a physical reaction not a histamine reaction, if that makes sense. You might sneeze because it irritates you nose like pepper or flour might, but you won't get inflammation reaction like with allergies. Typical dust is a combination of dirt, mold spores, dead skin from you and your pets, dead plant material, and whatever else you bring in on your shoes and clothes. Compared to typical dust, DE would be considered allergen free cause it's not anything but crushed diatoms. Unless you are allergic to diatoms....

Revolution is AWESOME. It's so effective that we often use it for two months between doses. But it requires a Vet visit, so you either have to buy it from the Vet, or get a prescription from him to use to purchase online, just like a pharmacy prescription. We typically use it from late spring through the warmer part of winter and then skip the winter months.

But Revolution alone won't "get rid" of an infestation, which is why I recommend the DE because it works in a physical action, not chemical, so the fleas can never "get used to it", It works as long as it's there, and it's easy to clean up with a vacuum or dust mop. Or Without the DE, You could vacuum each carpeted room each day and empty the canister, as well as using your wand to vacuum all the baseboards in each room regardless of carpeting because blood and eggs and larva will roll away into corners where they are safe until they molt into biting adults. Also Vacuum the furniture and the pets bedding everyday, to catch any that have fallen off and to pick up the excess blood. Fleas do not stop sucking when they are full, they KEEP SUCKING BLOOD AND POOPING IT OUT UNDIGESTED TO FEED THE LARVAE THAT ARE IN THE CARPET AND FLOORING. So if you don't remove that dried blood, it's just feeding the next generation. Except for Lyme disease, they are worse than ticks cause they can bleed your animal dry, they are NEVER FULL!!

Because My BF was/is too lazy to vacuum every room every day, I just put DE down for a week, then vacuumed it up a week later and put it down again for another week. As long as the DE is down, In the carpets and on the hardwood floor ( brushed into cracks and any corner where they could hide) Any flea that moves through it will be affected and dehydrated.

I can also recommend DE. It also works great as a worm cure for pets! Just add to their food for a week or so and repeat every 2 months or so. Keeps pets worm free naturally, and DE is also good for their fur and skin and teeth.

I can also recommend coconut oil as a tick/flea treatment, but I would only recommend it for very shorthaired pets, as it would be really messy otherwise!

Adding coconut oil to their diet is also a wonderful and healthy extra for your pets.

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Do as I say, not do as I do... DEFINITELY not do as I do!!!

Mimosa, you rubbed it directly into their fur and skin? I can just imagine what my cat would look like greased up! LOL That's an interesting idea, the oil would clog the breathing tubes of the flea. Cool Idea.

Dottie, that sounds nice. I bathe my cat do you think I could make the same soap and use it on him? Right now I use baby shampoo, the no tears kind.

Metqa I'd ask the vet first to make sure there's no problem with cats and the ingredients, but it should be ok
I just used the melt and pour soap chunks from Hobby Lobby (I don't recall the brand but it had glycerine) along with soap grade peppermint oil (about 1/2tsp per bar) and about a tablespoon of powdered rosemary (I just use the stuff I had in the spice drawer and plsed it in a coffee grinder lol).

You don't need a special mold either. If you have a silicone muffin pan, that works great

i just went through the flea thing with my two poodles that had never had fleas before. one is allergic to topical flea control and it doesn't work for the other. my vet prescribed trifexis heartworm and flea control. it's a pill and it's working!!! i am so happy. then on top of all the house hold de=fleaing, we have it under control. i first used a pill called capstar for 5 days. it worked in 30 minutes, but is only a 24 hour solution. then after that i switched to trifexis, which is a once a month pill that starts to kill adult fleas in 30 minutes and all are gone in four hours. it works! i am thrilled. i'm going to use this on them for 3 months, then switch back over to sentinel, which works at killing the eggs, but not adult fleas. once i know the flea cycle as been destroyed, i will feel more comfortable using the sentinel as prevention as well as heartworm meds.\

i like to go as natually as possible, fed garlic/b vitamin tablets, bake flea off biscuits, and other natural preventives, but this fall it did not hold them off like usual and i had to resort to meds this time.

Shreem, Thanks for those product suggestions and tips. I love Capstar, because when we travel we can be sure we don't accidentally take any fleas along. I give one to Bean right before putting him into his carrier and by the time we leave it has started working and by the time we arrive, it has killed any fleas on him so there are no live fleas at our destination.

Metqa, Yes, you rub your pets all over with the coconut oil, LOL! It's messy, but it is wonderful for their skin and coats, so they will be all shiny and smell edible, LOL! We also feed our dog EVCO every evening in her food, and do the DE in the morning with her breakfast/snack. She is doing very well on this diet, and since we are feeding her DE and EVCO she is free from ear infections. She used to get them at least two to three times a year, and now: nothing. We are also feeding her a wheat free diet, and try to prepare most feed ourselves. It is actually saving us money!

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Do as I say, not do as I do... DEFINITELY not do as I do!!!

My head is spinning with so many options. We were doing well using the Neem Oil baths but that quit working. We bought $90 worth of Frontline on 10/28/2013 and one of the dogs had to have a cortisone shot in order to get him calmed down.

We have used the Frontline twice and I’m still seeing fleas.

I have order the DE to try. It should be here this week. Would dusting the house and using the Capstar work? Do you dust the entire house?

Well, It's good to wear a dust mask when applying any dusty material, but I didn't. I just used a small sieve and held it about a few inches above the floor and tapped it with a wooden spoon to get a small amount to fall through to the floor and then I gently swept it into the carpet/floor cracks and left it. For carpet, I tamped it down by walking over it in shoes so that it settled into the fibers rather than staying on top.

I dusted every carpeted room, (I didn't bother with the kitchen, but it would help to keep pantry pests away if you put a bit in the corners) and let it settle and left it down for as long as my roommates would let me, over a week. When I vaccuumed , I re applied it and left it down longer again.

I applied it to the pet similarly, by rubbing the fur up and letting the dust fall to the skin and rubbing it in. A little sneezing but not terrible as your are not making clouds of dust, just gently getting it to fall into the fur. especially around the neck, chest and shoulders, the fleas favorite biting places. If your pet is calm enough, you can pinch some dust to rub into it cheeks , top of head, and on its stop, right between the eyes, and behind the ears.